The present invention relates generally to a fiber optic connector and, more particularly, to an actuated fiber optic connector.
Some fiber optic connectors are constructed in such a manner that when the mating connector halves of the connectors are interengaged, the optical fibers, or optical fiber ferrules therein, are aligned without further operations. An example of such a non-actuated connector is one in which the optical fiber ferrules are aligned by being pushed into the opposite ends of a precisely machined cylindrical guide sleeve. However, because of the close sliding fit of the ferrules in the guide sleeve, insertion forces are encountered in mating the connector halves, particularly for multi-channel connectors. Another well known means for aligning optical fiber ferrules is the use of a V-groove in which the ferrules are initially inserted with zero insertion force and thereafter are pushed into the bottom of the groove by a suitable compression plate or spring to align the optical fibers. Various forms of actuated fiber optic connectors utilizing the V-groove alignment concept are disclosed in the following U.S. Patents: U.S. Pat. No. 3,885,859 to Dalgleish et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 4,030,809 to Onishi et al.; and U.S. Pat. No. 4,142,777 to Gauthier et al.
Copending application of M. N. Sitabkhan entitled "Fiber Optic Connector," Ser. No. 061,057, filed July 26, 1979, discloses an actuated fiber optic connector in which the receptacle connector member is formed with the V-shaped channel having an optical fiber ferrule mounted therein. The ferrule of the plug connector member slides into the channel with zero insertion force when the plug and receptacle members are mated. A leaf spring is mounted in the channel. An axially slidable actuating sleeve surrounds the plug connector member. When the members are mated, the sleeve engages a radially shiftable plunger in the receptacle, forcing the plunger inwardly to automatically urge the spring, and thus the ferrules, into the V-channel to precisely laterally align the optical fibers in the ferrules. While such connector is generally satisfactory, the spring is constructed in such a manner that when it is actuated to push the ferrules into the V-channel, the spring tends to bias the ferrules apart thereby sometimes resulting in a gap occurring between the mating end faces of the ferrules, which results in light transmission losses through the connector.
The aforementioned Dalgleish patent discloses in FIGS. 6 to 10 a fiber optic connector for bare optical fibers in which a spring is actuated after mating of the connector halves which pushes the fibers into a V-groove. One portion of the spring would exert a forwardly direct biasing force on one of the fibers, but the other end of the spring would bias the other fiber rearwardly which would still result in a gap being created between the mating end faces of the fibers.
It is the object of the present invention to provide a fiber optic connector of the type in which a spring is utilized to urge fiber optic ferrules into a V-groove, but without the problem of transmission losses occurring due to biasing by the spring of one or both of the ferrules rearwardly in the connector.